I just installed two new 2024/25 production UK made Vintage 30's...

[valve]

My 90’s v30’s are the antithesis of boxy. The mids are smooth and balanced. Almost scooped. Very pleasant. I would never call them boxy.

I had a Mesa Tradituonal 412 with v30’s. Didn’t care for those compared to my 90’s v30’s.

what year is/was the Mesa Trad.?

 

[anomaly]

My 90’s v30’s are the antithesis of boxy. The mids are smooth and balanced. Almost scooped. Very pleasant. I would never call them boxy.

I had a Mesa Tradituonal 412 with v30’s. Didn’t care for those compared to my 90’s v30’s.

The mesa traditional cabs sound a bit boxy in general IMO. The Standard cabs are a bit more balanced to my ears, but not quite as tight sounding. The year makes a big difference too with the speakers.

Are your 90's V30's late 90's?

 

[valve]

The mesa traditional cabs sound a bit boxy in general IMO. The Standard cabs are a bit more balanced to my ears, but not quite as tight sounding. The year makes a big difference too with the speakers.

Are your 90's V30's late 90's?

i agree with this. The trad. is very low mid heavy, so if i use a low mid heavy voicing with my Diezel VHX it get's boxy, not so much with a 1960BV

 

[PiggySmallz]

I loaded my second cab with these new V30’s today. Same cab as my primary. So the cabs are identical. I A/B’d both quads of V30’s.

I don’t love them. Compared to my 90’s UK V30’s, they are much more stuffy in the low midrange. Not balanced sounding like the 90’s. The new ones have more low end because of the low mids. But you cannot dial it out with the bass control. It’s a frequency that sits between the bass and mid controls. You’d need an eq to dial it out. I won’t be changing out my 90’s V30’s.

Granted these new ones aren’t broken in. But that’s my experience.

I did try the new ones in my workshop and they sound really good in there. That room is insanely bright because there’s so many hard surfaces. They seemed to balance out there and the mids grind hard. So they need a brighter environment to sound the best. I’ll likely leave them in my workbench cab for now.

Finally installed mine. They are definitely a lot darker than the 2006 variants I have. While the 2006 have a bit more fizz, they sound better to my ears in a mix.

Im going to play with the 24s for awhile and give them a chance to break in and see what that yields. They pair really well with the 2006 though.

I havent put a mic up to the 8ohm 2022s and 2024s in my Mills 4x12 but that cab now seems less dark after removing the neo creams. That makes absolutely no sense to me but maybe it was the sensitivity difference between the v30s and Neo creams. The cab is loaded with 4 v30s. 2 from 2022 and 2 from 2024. Ill test more this weekend. Ive been slammed with work.

 

[Boy_Narf]

Little bit of a bump here. I just reached out to a local shop to bring one of these new ones in and they quoted me nearly $400 Canadian. Has there been a big price hike since moving these back to UK?

 

[D-Rock]

Little bit of a bump here. I just reached out to a local shop to bring one of these new ones in and they quoted me nearly $400 Canadian. Has there been a big price hike since moving these back to UK?

Long & Mcquade is selling the UK versions for $245 CAD

 

[Boy_Narf]

Long & Mcquade is selling the UK versions for $245 CAD

Yes it was L&M that I reached out to, they said they the 16ohm is on back order until Jan/Feb and is going for $389 + tax, CAD.

I wonder if they are still getting through their MIC stuff (maybe with the sticker removed, and a new dust cap), and there is a legit new UK line coming out. Interesting...

He is reaching out to their purchasing dept to confirm.

 

[D-Rock]

Yes it was L&M that I reached out to, they said they the 16ohm is on back order until Jan/Feb and is going for $389 + tax, CAD.

I wonder if they are still getting through their MIC stuff (maybe with the sticker removed, and a new dust cap), and there is a legit new UK line coming out. Interesting...

He is reaching out to their purchasing dept to confirm.

I don't know man, says $239 and at the bottom an employee answered whether they are made in UK and they said Yes. I would hold them to it. Order them online at that price and see what they send you. Choose pick-up at the store so you can return them on the spot if not UK.

 

[Boy_Narf]

Hey,

We never heard back from the L&M purchaser, interesting.

I did recently pickup an Orange PPC112 for a crazy deal and after experimenting with nearly 20 speakers (some very expensive/boutique) over the past few years, and a handful of expensive boutique cabs, I'm a bit ashamed to say this cab sounds REALLY GOOD. The cab is from 2019, which seems to be one of the fizziest years for the V30 and I concur. It has a very pronounced hiss/fizz that sits over the top of everyhting. The low end punch and mid range bite however are outstanding! The cab should be WELL broken in. The previous owner had a 50 watt head running through it and played it daily since he got it in 2019.

I had a brilliant thought to reach out to Orange and see if they are going to be using the new UK version in their cabs. Maybe I can get the new UK speaker in one of their cheaper cabs.

I just got a reply saying:

"As we understand it, C has split production between UK and China. We will continue to use the Chinese V30 in our PRC cabs and all of our UK cabs will use the UK version".

Interesting. I guess that means we might see a new UK made V30 with a price hike as my L&M friend mentioned, and possibly a cheaper MIC version. Possible cab price hikes as well? Yikes.

ANYWAY! I know the latest MIC V30's do sound very different, so I might still check out a 2025/2026 PPC112. This little cab sounds shockingly good IMO.

It's funny. I bought a Tiny Terror pretty close to when they came out, 2006-2007 and I still have it. It's MIK, and with it I bought a PPC112. I loved that rig dearly but gas took over and I traded the PPC112 for a PPC212, which was okay, and then a PPC412 which I never liked. 20 years later I've come full circle back to that first rig and it sounds fantastic hah.

BN~

 

[FourT6and2]

The Mesa Traditional 4x12 I bought recently (new) sounds incredible. It was built after Gibson bought Mesa. And the V30s are still the Mesa UK ones. But I don't know if anything changed on Celestion's end with these. But I will say I love it. There is only ONE other V30 cab I've ever had that I liked. It was a Mesa Recto 2x12 I got back in 2009 or so. I wish I still had it, but it's long gone. Anyway... I've historically hated V30s, but this new Mesa cab is incredible—whether it's the speakers or the cab or both, I don't know.

 

[Nigel]

FYI:

 

[The~Kid]

Yeah I have these in my BadCat 212 Lynx cab.....



They are simply the fucking best thing since sliced bread *_*

 

[the4thlast1]

The Mesa Traditional 4x12 I bought recently (new) sounds incredible. It was built after Gibson bought Mesa. And the V30s are still the Mesa UK ones. But I don't know if anything changed on Celestion's end with these. But I will say I love it. There is only ONE other V30 cab I've ever had that I liked. It was a Mesa Recto 2x12 I got back in 2009 or so. I wish I still had it, but it's long gone. Anyway... I've historically hated V30s, but this new Mesa cab is incredible—whether it's the speakers or the cab or both, I don't know.

Out of curiosity the v30s you have tried in the past were they mostly 16ohm? I found a pretty big difference between 8 and 16. The Mesa v30s are generally smoother regardless of impedance but being 8ohm also makes a difference.

 

[FourT6and2]

Out of curiosity the v30s you have tried in the past were they mostly 16ohm? I found a pretty big difference between 8 and 16. The Mesa v30s are generally smoother regardless of impedance but being 8ohm also makes a difference.

I've tried all sorts. I've had two Mesa 2x12s. One I loved (mentioned earlier) and the other was just ok. And I've had on Framus cab with V30s I hated. Don't know the impedance. Two Bogner 4x12s that came with 16-ohm Chinese V30s. Hated those speakers instantly and ripped them out. And a Mesa OS with 8-ohm V30s that I also hated. Then I got this Mesa traditional 4x12 and I love it.

 

[Boy_Narf]

Out of curiosity the v30s you have tried in the past were they mostly 16ohm? I found a pretty big difference between 8 and 16. The Mesa v30s are generally smoother regardless of impedance but being 8ohm also makes a difference.

My absolute favorites were a set of 8 ohm MIC speakers from a Marshall cab, bought a used quad and kept two of them. I had them in a port city os212v and I should have never sold that setup... prob the best sounding cab pairing I've owned. The Marshall ones seem to be voiced a bit brighter than the MIC/UK models IME.

I've also had a few early 2000's Mesa UK speakers and I find them incredibly dark and flat. I currently have one loaded in a port city os212 and it's pretty laid back and controlled. Not a huge fan but it's the only other 8ohm I've got right now.

At any rate I jammed the 2019 Orange cab again this am, and it sounds excellent. I'll prob give up on the UK thing for now, but will be keeping an eye out for another used PPC112. I think the upper mid harshness/fizz of the MIC speakers can help with darker voiced amps.

BN~